


Purple Flowers

by Lafeae



Series: Whump/Hurt/Comfort challenge [19]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst and Drama, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dark Humor to make a situation better, Explosions, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:54:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22099807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafeae/pseuds/Lafeae
Summary: A sudden attack on KaibaCorp traps Joey and Kaiba together beneath the rubble. With Kaiba injured, Joey is determined to make sure they make it out alive and intact.And ask plenty of burning questions along the way.—Puppyshipping, dark themes
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: Whump/Hurt/Comfort challenge [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1246169
Comments: 25
Kudos: 174
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Purple Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> Finally getting back to a bingo board. The prompt was ‘Caught in an Explosion’. 
> 
> This one went longer than I thought, but that’s not a bad thing. 
> 
> This does gloss into some darker topics, Including the fear of death, considering the situation they’re in, so be warned of those. It’s why I rated this M.
> 
> Beta’d by marshmallons. Tank u :3

On the whole, Joey was unfamiliar with anxiety. It wasn’t as though he had spent his life trying to avoid it, but more often than not, the moments that some of his friends had been anxious in felt like easy decisions for him. You either did something or you didn’t. Standing in the middle tended to get you killed, or worse, punched in the face. Punched enough times, and you learned to either punch back or get out of the way. 

But the KaibaCorp Tower made him anxious. 

Having stood in the building for the better part of two hours hadn’t really helped. He’d already walked around the perimeter of the lobby, and he couldn’t wander too far or else the receptionists would forget he existed. He had already gone up twice to remind them that he was still there, still waiting, and they’d both pointed him back to one of the pleather chairs poised around a square display of seasonal flowers. At one point, for fifteen minutes or so, he wondered why flowers. It didn’t fit the KaibaCorp aesthetic. Everything in the lobby was polished glass and chrome, cast in shades of blue and marble white. Sleek, clean, and modern. And then there were flowers. 

That was as far as he could focus. It would drive him crazy thinking about why Kaiba would have flowers in the lobby. He probably hadn’t made the decision, just signed off on the design. Did he have a say in the design? 

Joey shook his head. 

The flowers were stupid. The fact that he was in the KaibaCorp lobby waiting for an “interview” was stupid, too, but he was hellbent on meeting with Kaiba. Even if it meant personally dragging the prick out of his ivory tower.

Fed up, Joey jumped out of his seat and rushed to the desk. He barely waited for the mousy-haired receptionist to look up and greet him before he said, “Oi, I’ve been waitin’ for this thing for like three hours now. What gives?” 

The receptionist flashed a plastic grin. “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know what to tell you.” 

“How about whether he’s gonna come down here, or if he’s just yankin’ my chain?” Joey asked. 

“You’re in a very strange situation, you have to understand.” 

“Look, I get it, we got a history. But I got a recommendation from Yugi. I got Mokuba Kaiba vouchin’ for me. I mean, heck, I was one of the finalists in Battle City a few years back. Surely that’s gotta mean somethin’,” he insisted, but when the receptionist was unfazed, he added, “at least tell me somethin’. Anythin’.” 

A glimmer of pity flashed on the receptionist’s face. “The chance of you seeing Mr. Kaiba face-to-face is slim to none.” 

Ouch. 

“Tell me somethin’ I don’t already know,” Joey said, resigned. 

The receptionist’s expression faltered. She held up a finger and turned to her computer, clacking away. It wasn’t much, but it gave Joey a glimmer of hope, and he deflated against the desk waiting for her to give him the final ax, let him know that Kaiba wouldn’t even dare grace his presence. 

He gazed around the lobby. Men and women in fancy suits and pencil skirts. Everyone always looked so busy, and he tried to put himself in their pricey, leather shoes. It was hard. That didn’t seem like the life of a duelist. Yugi didn’t wear business formal unless he was doing a speech or having his picture taken for a promotion. At the far back of the lobby, he saw a man in an oversized windbreaker arguing with security and struggling to push a dolly of metal cases, and Joey immediately saw himself there. That was the kind of miserable, mediocre work Kaiba would have him doing. Not a duelist. Not a professional. Just another mule for the heavy lifting, who was constantly promised something greater and never given it. 

Rubbing his temples with the butts of his palms, Joey pushed away from the desk and began another lap around the lobby. He needed to calm down. He was sweating and his hands were jittery, and he hadn’t even seen Kaiba. Wouldn’t see him, if the receptionist was right. But he had all the words he’d say to Kaiba ready. He’d had it worked out for days, weeks, since Yugi had told him Kaiba was looking to sponsor another duelist. He wouldn’t beg or kiss Kaiba’s ass. He’d be blunt, direct, and as perfectly professional as he could be, because if he didn’t come up with some sort of income, he’d be a lot worse off than huddling beneath it rattan wool blanker in the seas of winter. The streets were far colder. 

“Hey, Kaiba, been a while ain’t it?” Joey muttered to the scuffed tips of his shoes. No. Hello sounded better and more professional. Greetings were important. “Hello, Mr. Kaiba...man, that’s too weird. He’s not a mister. He’s a moneybags is what he is...okay, okay...just focus, Joe. It’s easy. Say hello an’ get straight to the point,” Joey sucked in a steady breath. “Hello Kaiba. How ya been? I know it’s been a long time an’ this must be a surprise, but I—“

“And you what?” 

Joey froze. Kaiba stood in front of him, arms crossed and brow raised. The blond struggled to find where he had suddenly appeared. “I uh...how...how long have ya been listenin’?” Joey asked, his confidence shrivelling in his chest. 

“Long enough to know you’re out of your league,” Kaiba sneered. 

Joey swallowed the bile rising his throat. “As if. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I’m qualified enough t’ be on one of your teams.” 

“Qualified,” Kaiba repeated. “I doubt you know how to spell that word, let alone know what it means.” 

“It means I’m good enough t’ be sponsored by KaibaCorp’s what it means,” Joey insisted. His hearted throttled against his sternum, and he fought to keep his fists from clenching. “I’m a ranked duelist, I’ve been in the field for more’n five years, an’ I was at Battle City, if ya recall.” 

“Oh, I recall,” Kaiba said, and his lips curled into an acidic smile. “But I don’t think you and I are thinking of the same thing. We’re talking about your duelling performance here, mutt, not your terrible life choices.” 

He knew it would come to this. Struggling to hold himself together, every cell buzzing in contempt, Joey said, “I wasn’t the only one there. If I remember right, you were there, too.” 

“And?” 

“An’ I wasn’t only one who decided to get laid!” Joey said, loud enough to bring the lobby to full murmur. He wanted to watch Kaiba falter. He wanted the smirk to fall off the prickly ass’s face and be replaced with...something. Something human, something that remembered they both had agreed, as hot-blooded teenagers, to fuck in a closet. 

Kaiba grabbed his arm and dragged him into an auxiliary hall, wedged between the back door to the café and a private elevator, complete with badge swipe. The small portal where Kaiba had appeared from, he guessed, which meant that his office was an elevator ride away. Luck was on his side. Maybe. If he played this right. 

“Was that your plan, mutt? Blackmail me into getting a job?” Kaiba hissed.

“What? No, a’course not.” 

“Then why bring it up?” 

Joey scoffed. “I’m not the one who brought it up. You started it. I was tryin’ to be professional.” 

“I couldn’t tell,” Kaiba quipped, and he scanned Joey like someone looked at a bug in need of killing. “Between your mouth and those khakis, you _absolutely_ exude the best of Kaiba Corporation. I should make you the poster child.” 

Joey pinched his lips and ducked his head. “You’re an ass, Kaiba.” 

“I’m being honest, mutt. You came here for an interview, so you’re getting it,” Kaiba replied. He stepped back to let the man in the puffy coat struggle to haul the dolly past them. “You lack professionalism, your employment history is shoddy, your recent tournament appearances have been spotty—,”

“I need the money to—,”

“—and lacklustre. Your deck is outdated, and your popularity numbers have slipped.” 

“I’m still in the top ten,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. He didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or punch the wall. His entire speech was trashed before he could give it, and the rest of his words turned to cement in his mouth. 

“And how long will that last?” Kaiba asked, mirthful. “Face it, Wheeler, you’re living in the past.”   
  
Two burly security officers brushed past them, but Joey hardly noticed. He’d gone numb, still trying to find the right words without begging and grovelling to Kaiba. “I can be good, an’ you damn well know it. I just need the money first,” he insisted, but the executive wasn’t listening. He had his finger pressed against the radio to his ear, listening to chatter. 

“This conversation is over Wheeler. I don’t need useless members on my team,” Kaiba said, pivoting to leave, his coat tails whipping behind him.

Useless.

The weight of the word crashed onto Joey’s head and he fell against the wall as more security ran by. It wasn’t the first time Kaiba had called him that, but it felt like the most researched. As if Kaiba had considered him for an iota of a second and still turned him down. Blunt. Maybe true. Joey knew he could be good, but he had to prove it. 

With confidence and fury venting in his chest, Joey lunged and grabbed Kaiba’s wrist, yanking him back. “I ain’t useless dammit! I can show ya, I jus’ need a chance!” 

“Don’t touch me you—!” 

The rest of the words never made it. An intense light, as bright as staring into the sun, overrode his senses. His body slammed into the wall so hard his bones felt like they’d turned to metal and were struck with a sledgehammer. The air left his lungs and refused to come back regardless of how hard he gasped for it. When he could grab a breath, he choked from the dust and smoke. 

Weakly, Joey rolled onto his stomach and tried propping himself up on his elbows. The small action sent his head spinning, and he collapsed onto the ground. Debris nipped into his skin. Glass. Rock. Drywall. What the hell had just happened...? One minute he was begging—no, asking—Kaiba for a job, and the next he was pummelled onto the floor. Had Kaiba sent one of his goons to body slam him? Couldn’t have. They were too busy with something else. Besides, it wasn’t like they would burst through the wall to do that. They had to be more civilised, or at least more human, than that. 

Groaning, Joey clapped his hands over his ears. A shrill alarm sounded in the distant, and his hands did little to muffle the sound. He didn’t think opening his eyes was a good idea, not until the spinning subsided, and he kept himself curled up until the worst of it was over. Whatever ‘it’ was. 

—

The siren hadn’t stopped. It awoke Joey from whatever hazy, half-conscious state he’d drifted into and let him know that this wasn’t a nightmare. Whatever had happened was still happening, though the dust around him had begun to settle. 

Wherever he had been thrown was small, too small to stand up in. The walls had crumbled down around him, the ceiling nowhere in sight. Well, most of it. The tiles and fluorescent tube lights were scattered on the floor, and he navigated carefully as he crawled to the edge of his bubble. He tried pushing against the concrete, ramming his shoulder into it, and clawing at the small spaces in between. He couldn’t see anything outside of them other than more rubble and dark. As he took in his surroundings, he saw the back door of the café wedged into the rubble, splintered in half under its weight. 

“Hey!” Fuck, his own voice hurt his head. “Hey, can anyone hear me! Hello!” 

There had to be someone else. Someone had to be able to hear him. The café workers, the security guards, the man in the puffy jacket, Kaiba. 

Kaiba. 

_Kaiba_. 

He’d been holding onto Kaiba’s hand right before the earthquake, or the blast, or whatever it was, went off. He couldn’t be far away, even if they’d been thrown apart. Warily, he checked his surroundings, upturning the ceiling tiles and brushing away rock. He didn’t know what he was looking for. The space was small, it wasn’t like Kaiba was hiding, unless he was looking for parts. 

Joey puked at the thought. 

There was no way Kaiba was dead. If he was alive, then Kaiba was alive. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And the fact that he saw no parts told him as much. 

Wiping his mouth on his wrist, Joey huddled up against the most upright piece of wall he could find, though it bent under his weight. Nausea hit him in waves, and he stared out at the tiny, dim-lit space. He patted his pocket for his phone, but wasn’t surprised to find the screen shattered. The LCD had become a rainbow of pigments, but it was bright enough for him to take a secondary look around to confirm that no, there were no Kaiba parts. He could give his stomach that peace of mind.

“Hey! Is anyone there!” he called. He didn’t know if he was louder than the siren. “If—if anyone’s out there I’m stuck! Hello!” 

He kept at it until he throat was nearly raw, pounding his fists against rocks and thinking someone could hear him. There had to be someone, somewhere that could hear him. If this was some disaster, there had to be people coming to the rescue. But the longer he shouted, the less hopeful he became. 

Instead, he attacked the rubble mercilessly. Most of the pieces were small, and though his fingertips barely squeezed in, he forced them as far as they could go and pried them out. After a short while, the first layer of rock sat beside him in a make-shift pyramid, a testament to his effort. But the deeper he went, the less the wall would budge. He scratched at the pebbles between the rocks and clawed at them until nails bent and chipped under the pressure. He stopped just as often, wiping blood and sweat from his brow, growing dizzy and nauseous from moving so much. 

Every now and again, he shouted when he thought he heard someone else calling out for help, or for people trapped. He couldn’t tell which, and almost thought he was making it up when he pressed his ear against the wall. It would have been his luck; his desperate, defeated imagination begging for help from someone. Anyone. Maybe even Kaiba, wherever he was. He tried not to laugh at the ridiculousness. He’d went into this day telling himself he wouldn’t beg Kaiba for anything, and yet here he was. It didn’t count. He wasn’t begging Kaiba for a job, just for help in this nightmare. Which did make him laugh, because usually Kaiba was his nightmare. 

After so long, he rested against the wall. His eyes were heavy, but he refused to sleep. If he slept, they couldn’t hear him, and he would be passed over. He wasn’t dying just because his brain thought it needed sleep. “Concussion,” he muttered, sucking blood-clotted snot back into his nose. “Throwin’ up an’...dizzy. I have a concussion. Don’t sleep, Joe. If ya sleep, ya might end up like one of those vegetables. Keep goin’...keep goin’....” 

Adrenaline pulsed in his veins. He clawed at the cracks in the wall he laid on, lazily working around the intact piece for support. He could at least half-rest while he worked. Anything, anything to get out of this hellhole. 

“Vegetables don’t pay rent though,” he said, dislodging a medium-sized rock. “If ya jus’ sleep, ya get a cot and they’ll feed ya through a tube. Won’t that be nice? Not havin’ t’ worry about nothin’, ‘specially not askin’ Kaiba for a job.” 

As if that was a life, he mused darkly. It was, in a way. He had a roof over his head, a bed, food, his friends would visit him. And yeah, he’d be racking up a bill, but if he never became conscious then it wasn’t his problem. If he was lucky, KaibaCorp would pay for his care—not that he wanted Kaiba to pity-pay him for getting stuck in whatever the hell this blast was. He decided it was a blast, a bomb of some sort. Earthquakes didn’t throw people into walls like rag dolls. They didn’t blind and deafen. 

A hole in the wall gave way. Joey craned his neck to get a better look to see where he’d dug to. Flashing the light inside, he recognised the outline of a body and gasped. “H-hello?” he asked. “Hey, you awake in there?” 

Inching down, he peeped through and drank in the figure laying haphazardly against a metal beam. They had far less room than he did, enough to turn around, but it wouldn’t change the view. A live wire snapped and fizzled in the corner, close enough that Joey backed away before replanting himself. “Hey, if you’re awake, answer me. I don’t wanna waste air on a corpse.” 

“I’m not dead yet,” Kaiba replied. 

Joey suppressed a smile. “Never thought I’d be happy to hear your voice,” he said, trying to get a look at Kaiba’s face. No matter how he moved, he couldn’t see above the ripped shoulders of Kaiba’s coat. “You alright?” 

“Do I look alright to you?” 

“I mean, I guess it could be worse.” 

“How do you figure?”

“You could be...I dunno, down the elevator shaft?” he asked, stifling his own laughter. 

“What’s so damn funny? I don’t see anything laughable here,” Kaiba said. What usually would have been a bark felt weak and one-note, as if Kaiba couldn’t manage to raise his voice. “You there mutt, or did a rock fall on your head?” 

“I’m here. I’m just imaginin’ you fallin’ down the elevator an’ makin’ one of those Looney Toons puffs of smoke,” Joey replied, and he bit his tongue. “Not that I want that or nothin’, it jus’ came to me and seemed sorta funny at...at the moment.” 

A rolling groan escaped Kaiba, but it wasn’t his indignant tone. It sounded pained, seeping out from a clenched jaw unwillingly. “So that’s how you’re entertaining yourself?” Kaiba asked. 

“Nah. Jus’ thought I’d share since ya asked.” 

“You could lie at least.” 

“Ya want me to lie?” Joey snorted. “That ain’t real professional. Ya asked what was funny an’ I told ya.” He leaned his shoulder against the wall and craned his neck to hopefully get a look at Kaiba’s chin. 

Kaiba moaned, and Joey imagined him rolling his eyes. “If you think this is still an interview, you’re delusional.” 

“Prick,” Joey huffed. “I’m jus’ makin’ small talk since we’re stuck.” 

“Talking about dying is small talk now?” Kaiba grunted, and even a small laugh escaped him. “That’s a messed up coping mechanism.” 

“It’s better than sittin’ here pretendin’ to have a tea party.” Joey inched further down, until his eye was lined up with the edge of the hole. Kaiba’s face was nowhere to be found, though he saw an open patch of neck with blood and dust pooling together. Below, his legs disappeared beneath a solid, transecting patch of wall. Or ceiling. “You...you think ya can get up? We could dig together t’ get outta here.” 

“Not happening.” 

Joey pinched his lips. “Ya too good to work?” 

“If I could get up mutt, I would have dug myself out of here already,” Kaiba said. He leaned forward, his breathing weakening, and he braced against the wall. The more he twisted his body, the more he heard a sickened splintering just below the tearing of cloth. “My leg are...fuck...are pinned...” 

“Kaib’, stop it, I get it.”

“Why? So I can sit here and hope someone will come and save me? That’s not happening. We’ve been trapped here for over two hours now. If a rescue crew hasn’t found us now, then they’re moving on to find more obvious survivors,” Kaiba reasoned, and he continued pushing, muttering ‘fuck’ under his breath. Each desperate word jabbed Joey in the gut. “If we’re lucky, they’ll start moving debris on the second...ngh....the second round, and we’ll have a better chance of being heard.” 

“Ya really think they already passed us up?” 

“I think they’re going to take the most logical route,” Kaiba replied, breathless. 

Deflating against the wall, Joey resigned himself to their fate. They would be waiting. For how long was uncertain, but he kept his ear out for more voices. He hadn’t realised that siren had stopped. 

—

The electrical buzzing died halfway through their silence. Joey kept his back to the wall that Kaiba sat behind, occasionally turning his ear to make sure the executive was still breathing. He was, but he whistled and wheezed every so often. At least he hadn’t been electrocuted, but the dust was getting thicker. Joey wiped off streaks with his sweat and batted it on his pants, though he didn’t know why. It wouldn’t make a difference, and it wasn’t like someone was going to care about how much dust he was covered in when they were found. If they were found. 

He hadn’t realised how awkward this was because of fear. Once the adrenaline settled, all he could sense was tension. He’d half-started multiple conversations, even played them out in his head, but had never spoken a word. 

“I didn’t mean to blurt that shit out loud, ya know,” Joey finally said. He picked at the pebbles under his nails. “About the us havin’ sex. Ya totally started it, but I was jus’ mad an’ figured...” 

“We don’t need to talk about this,” Kaiba insisted. 

“I know, but I can’t think of anythin’ else to talk to ya about.” 

“Anything. There are a plethora of topics out there that don’t include our sex lives.”

Joey turned towards the hole. “Not as interesting though.” 

“You thought that was interesting?” 

“You didn’t?” 

Silence, but Kaiba rustled behind the wall. Rocks fell to the side, and he grunted weakly. 

Joey rolled his shoulders and began digging around the hole. “I thought it was somethin’. I guess rememberin’ it makes it interestin’, just because I didn’t think it was gonna go nowhere. An’ it didn’t, even after it did...like, how does that happen? How do two people get together an’ decide they’re gonna screw each other and then just leave. You’ve seen the other person naked. Ya know a lot of secrets then.” 

“Secrets,” Kaiba repeated dryly. “I don’t think knowing how I look under a shirt is a secret.” 

“Depends on how many people have seen under your shirt,” Joey reasoned. A piece of rock dislodged, but not enough to make a dent in the wall. “I figure Mokuba’s seen ya, but that’s different...and...I wonder how Mokuba is.” 

Kaiba sighed. “I’ve been thinking that this whole time.” 

“He wasn’t in the building was he?” 

“I’m not sure,” Kaiba replied, palpably crestfallen. “He was supposed to meet me here after classes were over. That’s why I came downstairs. He called me and told me he was outside, but then security had a problem, and on top of that, I got into it with you.” 

Joey’s heart sunk. “Huh. I figured ya came down since I was makin’ a stink in your lobby.” 

“As if,” Kaiba scoffed. It was followed by another short groan and muted expletives. “I didn’t even know you were downstairs.” 

“Ya didn’t?” 

“No. I made it explicitly clear that I didn’t want to see or talk to you. The fact that you weren’t turned away at the door was a clerical error.” 

Anger frothed at the surface, but Joey let it drain away. He didn’t have the energy to be angry. There was no point, either, especially if he had to figure out a way to cooperate with Kaiba so they didn’t get passed up. “Well, whatever. Not like I didn’t figure somethin’ was up, but I thought: why the hell not?” 

“Because you’re hard-headed.” 

“Thanks.” 

“It’s not a compliment.” 

“I wasn’t takin’ at as one,” Joey said. He dug beneath a jagged rock until his hand slipped. He readjusted his stance. “I know I got my share of problems. Bein’ hard-headed’s got me through a lot, but Yug’s told me it causes trouble. An’ don’t I know it. All that shit with Kane, a’course I was hard-headed. Though sometimes people call it bein’ confident. If I wanted to get where I wanted, I needed t’ be confident.” 

“And that made you think you could just waltz in here and land a job?” 

“Worked for gettin’ laid,” Joey replied, smiling to himself. What he wouldn’t give to see the sour look on Kaiba’s face. “I thought if I was confident enough, maybe lightnin’ would strike twice.” 

Kaiba hummed knowingly. Even if that’s all he did, Joey was satisfied. It meant that he was still conscious, which was all he could ask for from the prick. If they were going to suffer, at least they weren’t suffering alone. 

“I’m gonna try an’ make it over there to ya,” he announced, continuing to dig. “If I can, maybe then I can get ya dug out.” 

“Doubtful.” 

“I’ll prove ya wrong, you’ll see,” Joey said. He prepared himself for one of Kaiba’s acidic retorts, but when he got nothing, he softened. 

—

The wall was practically impenetrable. Despite Joey best efforts, he got little more than dirt and drywall out of the edges before kicking out the smallest crusts of rock. He fought it nonetheless, despite blistered, aching fingers. His body begged to rest, but he didn’t allow it even when he perched up against the clear piece of wall. He still dug, and while he did, he talked from the top of his head. 

The conversation with Kaiba was hardly a conversation at all. The brunet didn’t contribute more than a few grunts of half-hearted responses, but it was more than Joey expected. When he focused on his digging effort, he quieted, but after a lengthy bought of silence asked, “How long we been down here?” 

“We’re not down anywhere. We’re still in the lobby,” Kaiba corrected. “But about four hours. Maybe five. The light isn’t as bright.” 

“You see light?” 

“Not specifically, but it’s getting darker,” Kaiba said. Every so often, Joey heard him grunt and growl, pushing rocks around and swiping them away. A few times he had urged Kaiba to not hurt himself, which he was sure garnered him Kaiba icy glare. He found himself laughing plenty of times at things that made no sense, like the glare. And he laughed at Kaiba mentioning it getting it darker. To his surprise, Kaiba chuckled as well. “I suppose I could be going blind.” 

“Ya could, and if ya do, I guess you’re gonna need one of those seein’ eye dogs.” 

Kaiba snorted. “Are you offering?” 

“I might be,” Joey said, and cringed at himself for starting this topic. But at least Kaiba sounded less pained than before. “Only if there’s an openin’ for it. I’d go through the whole interview process if ya want, but I think I’ll win, seein’ as I can talk.” 

“You seem to think that benefits you. The best kinds of pets are the silent ones. Fish, snakes, hamsters.” 

“Hamsters are noisy as hell. Serenity had one when we were little an’ all it did was gnaw on the cage bars. We had to move it out t’ the livin’ room ‘cause it was so annoyin’. It also bit ya when you held it, so after a while, we didn’t really like it. It just sat in its cage bitin’ away.” Joey licked his cracked lips and tasted blood. “I guess I don’t blame it. Who wants to be caged up?” 

“It’s not like you could let it run loose.” 

“We tried, but then it pooped everywhere. It made our dad real mad at us. He grounded us both an’ the hamster disappeared after that. I wish I could remember what I named it,” Joey said. He swallowed, but it tasted like swallowing sand. “Damn I’m thirsty.” 

“Mokuba and I never had pets. I begged for a dog at some point, but I got a little brother instead,” Kaiba said, his voice quieting. The gristle of it had ebbed away, and Joey knew he was hearing something more vulnerable. 

“Did Mokuba ever want one?” 

“Once,” Kaiba said, grunting. Cloth tore and Kaiba hissed. “He was about three or four, and he saw a stray picking through garbage cans at the orphanage and wanted it. He was real convincing, too.” 

“Yeah? What’d he say?” 

An irritated huff floated through the hole. “It doesn’t matter. This conversation is pointless.” 

“It ain’t pointless. It’s just talk.” 

“Exactly. We could be more productive with our time and energy,” Kaiba said, and he crossed his arms. Curious, Joey poked the phone through the hole and saw where Kaiba’s hand was clutching the locket hanging around his neck. He could play aloof all he wanted, but Joey knew he was just as terrified about what the next few hours might hold. “How’s the digging going?” 

“It’s...uh....going.” Joey pushed harder against the rocks around the hole before moving to the side, where the sediment seemed looser. “I don’t know what I’m doin’ though. An’ I keep hearin’ things slidin’ around all over the place. I keep thinkin’ I’m gonna take out the one brick that brings this whole Jenga tower down.” 

“You may. That’s the risk we run,” Kaiba said, nonchalant. “What of it?” 

“I dunno. Makin’ sure we’re on the same page here. So if somethin’ does come tumblin’ down ya know I was tryin’ to get us outta here.” 

“I don’t think I’ll care if I’m dead, Wheeler,” Kaiba replied, so calm that he may as well have been calling his move in a duel. “The chances of us being rescued exist, but they’re marginal to a second cave-in or,” Kaiba coughed, deep and phlegm-y, “or us bleeding out before we’re found.” 

“We got time,” Joey assured. 

“Not much.” 

“Some guy made it five days in that air-bubble in a boat. We can make it five days here if we need to.” 

“Those are freak happenstances. He had access to water, we don’t. We barely have room to move, and,” Kaiba coughed again, harder, “and we have no food. A person can only survive three days with no water. And that’s considerably shortened if we’re exerting ourselves.” 

“Shut up.” Joey closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the wall. “Shut up about all these facts an’...an’ all your logic. If ya believe in the right things, miracles happen.” 

“Like what, God?” 

“Like ourselves,” Joey rebutted. “If we believe in helpin’ each other, we can figure somethin’ out. Not that you’ve ever actually helped anyone other than yourself. Which is fine, whatever, I’ll do all the heavy-liftin’ for ya, but we ain’t dyin’ here.” 

A soft round of coughs echoed in Kaiba’s bubble. Joey wasn’t a doctor, but it didn’t sound like a cold. 

—

Reinvigorated by Kaiba’s pessimism, Joey dug into the wall, tossing bits of rock and drywall behind him. It was satisfying when something hit the glass. It made messy music, a broken symphony that was easy to hum to. He pressed his shoulder into the rock and shifted it slightly to the left, enough to give himself more edge and reach further, deeper, until his fingers flicked at a different material. Something soft and with give. 

“Are you afraid of death, Wheeler?” Kaiba asked. 

“Who ain’t?” 

“I mean right at this moment.” 

Joey’s nails pinched at the soft but wavy surface of something. Wood pricked into his skin. He didn’t care what he had found, so long as it wasn’t another human. The rock was too compressed for anyone to be alive. But he refused to work with his phone light. His eyes had adjusted enough. 

“I don’t wanna die, if that’s what ya mean.” 

“It’s not, I mean does the concept of death scare you? The possibility that at any moment, someone or something could kill you?” Kaiba asked. It was hard to read his voice, a mix of flighty and serious. Considering how difficult it was for him to keep steady and awake, he imagined Kaiba was having it worse off. 

“I don’t think about it if I can help it. I’m not really that kind of person that goes ‘man, what’s gonna kill me today’.” Joey lost his grip and slipped down, using the new angle to shove his arm so deep that his shoulder almost came out of socket. “I think you do though, or else ya wouldn’t be bringin’ it up.” 

“Not me precisely.” 

“Mokuba?” 

“...sometimes.” 

“I’m sorry, man. That can’t be easy to think about.” Joey slackened, and his fingers brushed the edges of the soft item until he grasped something twiggy. “I think he’s safe now, though. I hear people got a sixth sense about these things.” 

“It’s hardly a sixth sense. More likely common sense.” 

“Fine then, common sense. Whatever, I’m jus’ tryin’ to help. I don’t think Mokuba’s in the buildin’. I didn’t see him before you dragged me away, and we weren’t talkin’ long enough for him to get anywhere, even if he did walk in,” Joey said, but he didn’t know if his logic was good enough for Kaiba. All he had were muddled thoughts and half-recollections. “He’s prolly out in front of the buildin’ with the firefighters an’ your security guys waitin’ for ya t’ come out to him in one piece.” 

An unsteady breath. “You and the wishful thinking,” Kaiba said, and Joey imagined a steeled yet wistful look on high cheekbones. He may have even hid his eyes. “You seem to have forgotten that my leg’s stuck.”

The object was in reach, the stem pinched between his fingers. “Then...then it’ll be two pieces. But the better part of ya will make it back t’ Mokuba.” 

“...perhaps.” 

Easing his arm out of the hole, excited to see his prize. It dampened when a purple flower, seemingly untouched in the mess, revealed itself. “All that for a flower...ya can’t even help me outta here,” he muttered. He brought it to his nose anyways, enjoying a scent other than smoke and dirt. 

It wasn’t going to save them. It wasn’t going to unpin Kaiba’s legs or get them to safety. Nevertheless, he tucked it behind his ear and got back to digging. 

—

“Have you stopped?” Kaiba asked. 

The question woke Joey from a hazy half-sleep. He didn’t even know that he’d fallen asleep, just that he had taken a few minutes to rest the strained muscles in his back and neck. 

“For now.” 

“Mm.” 

“I’ll get back to it in a minute, my hands hurt,” Joey said. He tried to make a fist, but fell a little short. Even holding onto the flower ached, but it didn’t look right amidst the glass and stone. “So why do ya got flowers in your lobby?” 

Kaiba’s ragged breathing had gotten loud enough that Joey could count the breaths. Two heartbeats to a breath. Whatever that meant. “Because it...makes people happy. It’s something...nice to look at.” 

“Huh.”

“Why?” 

“No reason. I was jus’ thinkin’ about how it was weird while I was waitin’. Like ‘why does Kaiba have flowers down here? Does he pick them out?’” Joey asked. He twirled the stem between his fingers. 

“I have a list of...rare species that maintenance...pulls from seasonally. If it’s in the lobby it...ngh...it ought to be...”

“You a’right over there Kaib’?” Joey pressed his face beside the hole, but the view hadn’t changed. 

“I’m...fine.” 

“Ya don’t sound fine.” 

“What do you care?” Kaiba asked, and a heavy bout of coughing overtook him.

Fear stuck Joey like lightning, and he stuck his arm as far through the hole as he could. What for, he didn’t know, but he hoped he would reach Kaiba and rest a hand on his leg or shoulder to try and alleviate the bone-chilling cough. 

“I...I dunno because we need t’ get outta here. Because I’m a human and give a shit about people,” Joey said, his words increasingly panicked. Kaiba couldn’t catch his breath, and through the hole he saw Kaiba doubling over as far as his twisted limbs would let him. 

Frenzied, he threw himself against the concrete. Again and again, he smacked bruised skin and aching bone until it was rough and raw. All of his body weight forced against the hole, though very little budged. The Herculean effort was getting him nowhere, but he refused to give up. 

“Stop...! Stop it...!” Kaiba ordered. 

“No!” Joey threaded his fingers beneath rock on the other side of the hole, clawing at a loose edge. “I got this. I’m gonna get us outta here, so I’m gonna, just ya wait an’ see.” 

“Wheeler, stop...being an idiot...” 

“I promise I’ll get ya back to your company,” he said through clenched teeth. A chunk of rock ripped out in his hand. Whether by terrible structural integrity or his own strength, he didn’t care, and it let him slam his shoulder against the opening more, weakening the wall. The rocks shivered and shook. Dust hissed overhead. 

“That’s...ridiculous, Wheeler you—,”

“I promise I’ll get ya back to Mokuba.” 

“Joseph listen to me!” 

Joey stopped with his shoulder jammed into the wall, his hand gripped tight around another rock. His name rung in his ears, but he wasn’t sure that Kaiba had said it. But it sounded the same, and commanded the same, as Kaiba caressing him in the hallway and murmuring the name seductively into his ear. 

“If you don’t stop,” Kaiba began, his raspy, shaking breath drawing Joey closer in. “If you don’t stop...you’re going to...get us killed.” 

“You said that was the risk.” 

“When we were...joking. But the...ceiling sounds like it’s going to...collapse. Whatever’s between us is...is holding this up. So stop it.” 

Joey lowered his head. “Ya don’t sound good.” 

“I’ll sound even worse if the...the rocks fall on me, don’t you think?” Kaiba said, and he stuttered out a broken laugh. Delirious. Hungry. Thirsty. Pained. Desperate and scared to death but unwilling to say it. “Being admirable and...heroic is useless if...if you’re being stupid, too.” 

“At least I’m tryin’,” Joey said. He flopped onto the makeshift seat he’d made, hunching down to be eye-level with the hole. “I might not be able to do nothin’, but dammit I’m gonna try. Sittin’ an’ hopin’ doesn’t get shit done.” 

“No.” Kaiba exhaled roughly. “No, it doesn’t.” 

So Kaiba could agree with him. The victory fell short of hopeful. 

—

Minutes felt like hours. Hours felt like days. Time was irrelevant in their limbo, and Joey passed it while in and out of consciousness. It was better to conserve his energy if they were really going to be trapped for days like he feared. It helped the anxiety of how he was going to survive go away. It made him less hungry, though his growling stomach sometimes echoed in the bubble. The flower was the only thing he considerable edible, and even that could have been poison. It was an absolute last resort, he decided. He liked clutching it. It gave him something to do. 

Bleary, he opened his eyes to the darkness. He learned to ignore all noise but Kaiba’s uneven breathing. 

“Why’d ya call me Joseph?” he asked, clearing his throat where his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. When Kaiba didn’t reply, he asked again. 

“It’s your name,” Kaiba replied after a long while. 

“Did I wake ya up?” 

“I don’t know. I don’t think I was asleep, but I heard voices.” 

Joey rolled his eyes. “You were asleep then. Or the pain got to ya. I’ve thought some crazy things when I’ve been hurt before. Things that don’t really make much sense.” 

“Such as?” 

“Let’s see,” Joey licked his lips. There wasn’t even blood on them anymore. Damn. “I remember thinkin’ I wanted to order a pineapple pizza even though I hate it. I thought if I put those plastic vampire teeth under my pillow that the tooth fairy would come an’ give me money. Then there was once I was convinced I was havin’ a love affair with a mermaid that looked like Mai. That one was trippy, an’ I knew it wasn’t real ‘cause, well, ya know why.” 

Kaiba hummed happily. “I do, don’t I?” 

“Yep. An’ ya knew before anyone else, too. I hope that makes ya feel special,” Joey said. He closed his eyes, and he thought back to the night he and Kaiba shares together. He could feel Kaiba’s fingers sliding over his ribs and across his back, pinching at his muscles. “‘Course it don’t mean much now, since I blurted it out t’ everyone.” 

“I don’t...think they’ll remember.” 

“Prolly not.” Joey knew, in a better scenario, he would have gotten aroused by thinking of his and Kaiba’s affair. Right now, it just made him content. “I think about it a lot, ya know. I’m not obsessed or nothin’, I’ve moved on an’ had other boyfriends an’ girlfriends. But whenever I get lonely, I think about it. I wonder what mighta happened if I wasn’t so embarrassed, an’ you weren’t so—,”

“Me,” Kaiba interrupted, finishing Joey’s sentence. “I’m sure you...think about...what might’ve been.” 

“Nah. I mean, kinda but not really. How the fuck am I supposed t’ know what datin’ you would be like? Especially when we were sixteen. Who the fuck knows what they want when they’re sixteen, let alone twenty-one. I can’t...I can’t even think ahead right now, all I know is that I think about you an’ me sometimes when I’m lonely, an’ if I die here, I’ll die knowin’ that you know that.” 

“If that gives you...peace...then fine...” Kaiba said, coughing and banging against the metal beam. 

“Hell no it don’t. But it’s the only thing I can come to terms with right now. You’re the only one here, the only person I can talk to.” Joey patted his knees, blowing up dust. “There’s a million little regrets I got. All sorts of things I haven’t said t’ people. At this rate, I ain’t gonna get the chance.” 

Kaiba cleared his throat. “I thought you...didn’t want to die.” 

“I don’t.” 

“Then don’t talk like you are,” Kaiba ordered, steadying his voice long enough to sound strong. “We aren’t...dead yet. Don’t read your own eulogy.” 

“I’m jus’ getting things off my chest. There not much else t’ do right now.” Joey licked at his broken nails, cleaning clumps of dirt and blood away. “Sorry if it offended ya or whatever. I’ve held onto that thought for a long damn time. If this hadn’t happened, who knows how long I woulda held onto it.” 

“You’re stubborn, you...would have lasted a while,” Kaiba assured. He hummed off-key before adding, “And there’s no reason to...to apologise. Sometimes I imagine how it might’ve...turned out. You aren’t a one-night stand that... I can forget. I can sweep you under the rug but,” a heavy exhale, “I can’t forget. First times have that...terrible quality to them. And I...I sometimes...”

Joey smiled. He swept his bangs out of his face and squatted by the hole, framing himself as best he could. “Stop talkin’ so much, Kaib’. Take it easy, I get it. I miss ya, you miss me, an’ we were both too hard-headed an’ embarrassed to give shit a try. It happens when you’re too alike.” 

“...I wouldn’t go...that far...” 

A bolt of anger clashed with a pang of hopeful longing, and tentatively he said, “There’s only one way to find out.” 

“...heh. I suppose so...but...we need to get out of...out of this...first and...we’ll...”

Kaiba’s voice trailed, leaving Joey hanging onto each syllable, waiting for a cough or a clearing of a throat. Anything. And the longer he waited, the hotter his cheeks became. He fought back the prickling tears and clenched his teeth. “Kaiba...? Ya can’t leave me hangin’ like that. We gotta get out first, and then we’ll what?” 

Even in the dark, he could tell Kaiba wasn’t moving. When he pressed his ear to the wall, there was a long draw between breaths. He counted three or four heartbeats, maybe five. Kaiba crackled like an old television. 

“Ya gotta keep talkin’ to me here, I don’t wanna be alone. There’s no one else here. There ain’t even voices out there.” Joey clenched his fists so hard he popped the blisters. “I don’t wanna be alone. Don’t leave me alone here,” he begged, and he didn’t care that he was begging Kaiba for this. The absolute quiet of his bubble would be slowly bring him to madness, his anxiety playing with his mind. He couldn’t punch his way out this. 

But he tried. 

He slammed his knuckles into the walls until they bled, and he continued after. Someone would hear his knocking. Someone had to hear it, it was too loud to just be in his head. Intermittently he cried out, “Hey! We need help! Ya gotta hear us down here you son’s a bitches, help! Help!” and he heard his own echo. And the hiss of sand. And the crackle of Kaiba’s breathing. 

—

Sleep worsened Joey’s headache each time he woke up, but it passed time. He wore his hands out to the point of splintering, bloody, and raw. One of the knuckles on his right hand was broken. And yet the pain didn’t faze him, just the frustration that he couldn’t go any further without leaving permanent damage. He could hear Kaiba scolding him for being an idiot, for working himself to the point of exhaustion and wasting oxygen. Or something. 

He hummed a nonsense tune and curled up by the hole, occasionally poking his phone through to see Kaiba’s chest rise, fall. One, two, three, four, five, rise again. Kaiba had less space than he did. It was shorter than Kaiba was tall, his legs submerged somewhere between floors. The hole may have been his only access to the questionably-fresh air choking him. 

While awake, Joey called out, occasionally throwing rocks at the furthest wall. It echoed, and if anyone was going to hear anything, it was there. “They gotta be comin’ back,” Joey whispered. “Keep breathin’ over there, I know they’re comin’ back. I just gotta have some damn patience here, right?” 

Joey laughed for keep himself from crying. He wanted to believe that they’d be saved. They would be. But Kaiba was right: it was getting darker. It was close to sundown, and if not, after, and the rescuers would be working by lamplight. In the dark crevices, they could have been missed. Or if they were found, the moving rock could have left one trapped while the other was saved. That wouldn’t have been so bad. One of them could have moved on and continued on with life, remembering the moment when a building fell on their heads. 

“An’ I don’t even know why this happened,” Joey said aloud. He kept thinking it was an earthquake, but they always caused aftershocks. He hadn’t felt any more tremors, just heard rock falling. “I guess someone bombin’ your HQ makes the most sense. Not sayin’ you or anyone deserved it. KaibaCorp’s jus’ got enemies an’ things like this happen. Guess ya got your fair share of bad luck; if me an’ you were different in some way, it’s that. I got good luck, but you’ve always carved your own destiny out. That’s...fuck, that’s somethin’ to admire.” 

The tears welled again, and Joey squeezed his eyes closed. Opened, closed, it didn’t matter. He just didn’t want to think about Kaiba not making it back to his little brother. “If I got out an’ you didn’t, this would be my fault. I’m the one that held ya back. If I hadn’t done that, ya wouldn’t be stuck over there with your leg pinned. You coulda gotten out. Hell, ya prolly woulda been somewhere safer than this. Fuck.” 

Joey pounded his wounded fist against the rock. He curled up, biting back the burning sob. In blotted vision, he saw the flower ahead and flattened his palm against it, the tender petals crumpling against his skin. He scooped it up and brought it to his nose. The persistent plant’s petals hung on, though they’d developed holes. Scars. 

“Stupid flower...” Joey grumbled.

Thumbing the delicate, veiny petal, he pulled the flower in close and hugged it to his chest. He imagined it was Kaiba’s hand. No, just a finger. Scarred but not dead, soft and warm. He stroked it smoothly. It would be his surrogate alongside Kaiba’s notched breathing. 

—

Voices stirred Joey sometime later. They were deep and long voices, close by in his dream, but they distanced themselves as he widened his eyes. He unfurled his cramped limbs and scooted up to the wall. He forced himself upright, fighting the dizziness. He pressed his lips to the rock, tasting the blood he’d left behind. 

“Hear that, Kaiba?” Joey asked. “I hear the voices you were talkin’ about.” 

A stifled breath. 

“Maybe it’s my pain settin’ in now. Might be that I’m hungry, too. But I hear ‘em.” He hitched his shoulder against the wall and pulled his knees to his chest. He rested his head against the wall, drifting in and out of consciousness, cursing himself for not hanging on better. It hadn’t been that long. He’d just been so damn jittery and afraid, he’d used up all his energy. “Guess it’s good ya passed out. That way ya aren’t sufferin’. Ya don’t gotta tell me your leg hurts, I know it does.” Joey licked his lips, but the blood wasn’t satisfying. “Does it hurt?” 

No response. Kaiba’s breathing hitched. 

Joey deflated against the wall and forced a smile on his face. The voices became louder and clearer. 

“... _easy, easy..._ ”

“... _there, get that out of the way._..” 

A hissing whir of a machine disrupted the steady flow of orders, and rocks trembled beneath him. Slowly, the middle wall that separated them rose. Joey fell forward, catching the flower before it disappeared in the newly forming fissure. 

Light flooded the space and stung his eyes. Cool, fresh air wafted in and smelled better than steak or shrimp curry. He sucked in greedy breaths and wriggled his way underneath the small opening that he’d been given. For the first time, he caught a glimpse of Kaiba as a whole, dust-coated and slacken against the beam. 

Crawling over the uneven ground, Joey tumbled towards Kaiba, landing short of his thigh. The rest of his lower body was swallowed beneath a mound of barely sifted stones where he’d tried to free himself but either lost the will or, more in Kaiba’s line of thinking, didn’t see the logic in straining himself when it would do little more than ease his suffering. 

As the light widened in the corridor, he saw the singed flesh on Kaiba’s left arm, and the blood staining his white coat to shades of brown and pink. 

“They’re here,” Joey rasped, collapsing by Kaiba’s side. He reached out for Kaiba’s hand, brushing his fingers along the back it, flicking away pebbles. “I hope ya don’t mind me layin’ here with ya. I ain’t gonna steal your air for long, but I ain’t lettin’ ‘em find only one of us. So deal with it.” 

“...mm...” 

—

It took several days in the hospital for Joey to become fully conscious. Someone told him he had a concussion, amongst a myriad of other problems, and that was why they kept him in bed or, at times, sedated.

Time moved slow as he healed. Police talked to him and asked for details in the meanwhile. They showed him security footage from the day, questioning him about anything out of the ordinary. When he couldn’t come up with anything concrete, they showed him various pictures taken in the lobby as Joey walked the edges. They showed pictures of the hallway, him and Kaiba mid-way through the vicious argument he barely remembered. The still didn’t capture their rancour. But he noticed something in all of them: the man in the puffy coat, lugging around the dolly. 

When he asked the police if they noticed the man, they nodded and urged him for more details. He had nothing more than, “He looked out of place. Not on-brand with KaibaCorp, ya know?” And in the middle of asking, he put two-and-two together. “Did he do this?” 

The police sipped their coffee and didn’t respond directly. Instead, they said: “It’s interesting that you pulled Mr. Kaiba back at the last second. Forensics says that wall absorbed the worst of the blast from around the corner.” 

They left him to marinate on that information, leaving their cards and promising that they’d be in touch. 

The small exchange left Kaiba on Joey’s mind. His semi-conscious brain remembered asking if Kaiba was hurt, how bad was he hurt, but he wasn’t sure if he got a response. If they did, he hadn’t believed it and purposefully forgot. 

On the fourth day, he forced himself out of bed with a goal to ask Kaiba personally. 

The private room had been specially prepared. It’s walls were a soothing blue, and black-out curtains had been installed. Even still, enough light glowed from the corner lamp that Joey could make out the pained crease on Kaiba’s brow. But he supposed he would’ve been in pain, too, considering how Kaiba’s right leg was rigged up and hung from the ceiling like a piece of meat for sale. Except he saw no meat. Not even a toe. Just packs of gauze and industrial looking bars from ankle to hip.

“Hey, Joey,” Mokuba greeted from the corner. 

“Hey.” 

“I wondered when you would show.” 

Joey’s lips thinned. “I woulda been sooner, but the nurses kept me down,” he said, slipping into the tough plastic chair beside Kaiba, watching his chest quaver as he breathed. The crackling breaths had disappeared. “How’s he doin’?” 

“It’s been touch and go, but considering everything, the doctor thinks he’ll be okay. It’s just going to take time for him to pull himself together, but I’m sure he can do it,” Mokuba said, cautiously optimistic. The kid smiled at least. “I uh...I wanted to ask you something; the rescue crew found you guys laying together, and there was a flower in your hand. I—I saw the video of you two arguing before the...the thing happened. I wondered what happened to you guys while you were trapped.” 

“...Moki...” Kaiba strained. 

“Sorry, Seto,” Mokuba huffed. 

Kaiba, though motionless, had opened his eyes. Hidden beneath the bruises, Joey hadn’t noticed. But blue eyes watched him intensely. 

“I’m going to leave you two alone,” Mokuba said. 

The stagnant silence between them begged so many questions that Joey wanted to ask. His emotions ran over like a boiling pot, and he half-started a few things but only got out the first breath before stopping. This wasn’t a time to gloat about succeeding, about being useful, even if he wanted to. The air was charged with much more than that, a beating force he couldn’t hold onto. The anxiety from waiting at KaibaCorp never left him, but this was bigger than a job. 

“You were talking more before now,” Kaiba mentioned. 

“I know.” 

“It doesn’t seem like having more air would slow your output.” 

Joey tongued the cut on his lip and shrugged. “I was dyin’ then, I ain’t dyin’ now. Not as quick.” 

“Mm.”

“I’m just tryin’ to figure out the best way to say somethin’ first. It’s important, an’ I don’t want it to come out too stupid.” 

Kaiba grinned and turned away, looking as relaxed as he could in a hospital bed. Joey noted the shrivelled purple flower in his hand. “I already have an answer, Joseph, but take your time. We’ve got plenty of it.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Oh do I love being evil to Kaiba. It’s definitely something I thrive on. This end actually took a it because there were other things I planned on having Joey say like....’does it hurt?’ But it didn’t make as much sense. 
> 
> Either way, one more bingo board down! Thank you for reading and tell me what you think!


End file.
